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The Keep:The Language Hackers
Description For all language learners. Whether this is your 1st new language or your 5th, or you just need to know some phrases for an upcoming business trip, this is a place to challenge and encourage each other as we learn. Originally the #Add1Challenge guild, it is now broadened and renamed to include similar language learning hacks, like fluentin3months by Benny Lewis and All Japanese All the Time. Come share your favorite tips and tricks, your roadblocks, and get encouragement in all your language hacking endeavors. Resource List Here are some links that might be helpful in your language learning endeavours: Disclaimer: None of these sites are affilated with Habitica or the guild. They are being provided purely as suggestions. General Free *Duolingo has a number of online courses in various languages *Memrise vocabulary retention using mnemonics *Bliu Bliu reading comprehension; some subscription elements *CueCard is a basic flashcard program available for download. Great for review when you don't have internet access. Got me through my exams :P *Anki is flashcard (SRS) application. It's completely free and open source and can be used on Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS, and through a web browser. The dev funds the project through the anki client on iOS (it's $24). The android app is developed by a different group of people and they release it for free. You can make your own decks or download shared decks. It's very customizable which comes at the cost of making it a bit obtuse. Definitely read the manual. Paid *italki is a site you can use to practice conversation over the internet Useful Blogs *The Jack Sparrow Approach Some useful advice on speaking a language you aren't confident in *Fluent Forever , a blog run by an opera singer and language learning enthusiast. Focuses on using neuroscience to create efficient methods of study (he uses Anki a lot). The author also has an associated book, posts youtube videos, and creates both free and paid study materials for a long list of languages. Category:The Armory Language Specific Spanish Free *Spanishpod101 is a series of audio lesson podcasts (only the first 3 in each series are free, but there are many series) *RTVE is a site where you can find TV shows in Spanish *The Spanish Experiment lessons plus children's stories to introduce reading skills Paid * Useful Blogs * Japanese Free *Denshi Jisho is a comprehensive online Japanese-English dictionary. It interlinks word entries with their kanji characters and radicals, displays example sentences, and tags for common words and JLPT levels. *Rikai-chan (for Firefox) and Rikai-kun (for Chrome) are browser plugins linking to the Denshi Jisho dictionary. With the plugin enabled you can mouseover Japanese text on a webpage and it will display a popup with the text's reading and definition. *JED app for Android is a solid Japanese-English dictionary app including kanji radical lookup, example sentences, and verb conjugations. It covers a wide range of words including esoteric technical phrases and coarse slang terms so proceed with caution in sensitive situations. Paid * Useful Blogs *KanjiDamage is a popular site dedicated to learning kanji. Their approach is entertaining and original, but expect coarse humor. They also create some of their own radicals and readings designed to make the learning process easier, just realize you won't necessarily find them on other sites. Also be aware that for some reason they put the imperial navy flag on some entries. *Gabriel Wyner (Fluent Forever) 's blog posts on Japanese are full of background and assistance (especially for kanji beginners), and include free downloads of his model Anki decks, which have a bunch of customizations to make flashcard creation faster and easier. He includes videos and detailed written descriptions on how to install and use the decks, plus the whole rundown on how and why he developed them to work the way they do. Auslan Free *Signbank has a fantastic video dictionary as well as several other resources Category:The Armory